


On This Ship

by TuckerPuppy (HarleyD)



Category: Andromeda (TV)
Genre: Bobby is an ass, Friendship, Harper Whump, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mentions of past rape noncon, Nervous Harper, New friendship for Beka and Harper, mentions of abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-28
Updated: 2016-08-28
Packaged: 2018-08-11 11:41:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7890433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HarleyD/pseuds/TuckerPuppy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Takes place after Bobby has left and Beka is left with Harper.  She finds out that Bobby had been doing some pretty awful things to Harper, and wants him to know that it isn't like that on her ship.  Start of friendship as a nervous Harper finds his new home.  Oneshot</p>
<p>Doesn't describe any noncon, but talks about past events.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On This Ship

            Beka sighed, Bobby was really gone.  As she brought the Maru into open space she wondered what to do with the boy they had picked up.  She had promised him a place on the Maru and she could easily do that, it wasn’t like she had any other crewmembers to discuss it with.  Once the ship was secured she went to look for him.  “Harper!  Harper!”

            Behind her a small body suddenly slipped down from the access tunnels, “Yeah boss?”

            She jumped and glared at him, “Don’t do that.”

            His smile was sheepish, “Sorry boss.”

            She glanced up at where he had come from and almost smiled, “How do you fit up there?”  He shrugged and she looked back up into the small access tunnel, “What were you doing?”

            “Well I was just checking over the ship, fixing her aches and pains, right darlin’?”  He affectionately patted the bulkhead before turning back to Beka.  “But the Harper can’t do everything with what you have.”  She watched as the smile slid off his face and he took a step backwards.  “We’re gonna need some new parts.”

            Damn, she definitely did not have enough money to buy new parts.  She raised her hand to run through her hair and Harper flinched backwards.  Stunned, all she could do was look at him as she realized he was waiting to get hit for asking for new parts. 

            Without thinking she took a step forward, intending on comforting him and he cringed again, shutting his eyes.  It sickened her to see someone like this.  Not only did he expect to get hit, but by the looks of it he was willing to take it if he could stay on the ship.

            She grabbed the sleeve of his shirt and despite his panicked whimper, pulled him forward into a tight hug.  She held on to him fiercely and after a few seconds he realized she wasn’t going to hurt him and relaxed, hugging back.  She pulled back a little and looked down at him, “It’s not like that on this ship.”

            Suddenly he tensed, a look of anger crossing his face.  He stumbled back a couple of steps, looking betrayed.  “Wha-what, is that some kind of joke?”  His face scrunched up as if he was about to cry.  “Are you screwing with me or something?”

            Beka felt her own anger rising, “What are you talking about?”  How dare the little runt yell at her on her own ship, especially when she was only trying to help him.

            He seemed puzzled by her return anger and she could see him fighting to keep his ground.  He mimicked her voice, “ _Not like that on this ship._ ”

            Now she was really confused, she grabbed his arm again, this time not nearly as gentle.  She pressed him against the wall, although she was careful to just intimidate him and not to hurt him.  “What is your problem, kludge?”

            She could literally see the fight leave him as he let his arms fall from where he had grabbed her arm and lowered his eyes.  “I’m sorry boss, it wasn’t my place- please don’t- please don’t kick me off the ship- p-please.  I can’t go back to Earth.”

            Even the pleading didn’t dull her anger, she gave him a little shove against the wall, not enough to hurt, just enough to assert her dominance, “What were you talking about?”

            “Y-you said not on this ship, b-but, but ya know.”

            “I know what?”

            He finally looked up at her, confusion in his eyes, “Bobby.”

            Her grip tightened and from the way he winced she was willing to bet that it hurt a bit.  “What about Bobby?”

            “That’s the way he’s done it since I got on the ship.”

            “Done what?”

            Harper held her eyes for a few more seconds before he looked down again.  “He’s been hitting me since I got here.”

            In surprise Beka jerked back.  She instantly remembered the black eyes and split lips and other injuries Harper had shown up with every few days.  She had always just assumed it was from doing engineer work and crawling through the tunnels.  “Oh, Harper, I- I didn’t even know.”

            He barely acknowledged what she was saying and didn’t look back up.  She took a step towards him and he tensed and spoke in a low whisper, “Sorry, please, sorry.”

            She took a step back to placate his fear and spoke in the tone of voice you normally use to soothe a wild animal.  “Harper, tell me what happened.”

            Harper looked at her and realized she honestly didn’t know what he was talking about.  He swallowed hard, that meant she didn’t know what went beyond the hitting, and it wasn’t like he was going to tell her that.  He kept his eyes down, hiding the emotion; “It started the first day I was here.  I was recording him talking about the ship and I asked him about his dataport and he smacked me.  It’s been like that ever since.  If the Harper screws up, the Harper learns the consequences.”

            She moved towards him quickly despite that he flinched and pulled him close, “I- I never told him to do that, you should have said something, I wouldn’t have let it continue.”

            He let himself relax into her embrace, taking their words for what they were.  “Thank you.”

            His voice held an edge, like there was more.  It hadn’t taken long before she realized that the blonde wasn’t good at lying.  She pulled back and studied him; he was definitely hiding something.  “Was there more?  What else did he do?”

            Harper pulled away abruptly, looking anywhere but at Beka.  “Nothing,” there was a brief flash in his head of naked flesh and pain before he could rein it in, “Just smacked me around a bit.”  The words brought up an image of being smacked other places as he cried and begged for it to end.  He raised his chin defiantly, “It- it was no big deal, I-I’m not some girl that needs to be protected, I could have stopped it myself if I had tried.”  Never mind that he had tried and his efforts had been useless.

            It was the wording that made the sudden flash of understanding happen in Beka’s head.  She gasped and stared at him like he had grown another head before speaking in a hushed tone, “Harper, did he rape you?”

            Harper jerked away, flinching at the words, cursing himself for giving it away.  Her voice was angry and he just hoped to hell it wasn’t at him.  “Not too often, mostly just when you were off ship, or when he thought I screwed up and deserved something more than a backhand.  No big deal.” 

            “Oh Harper, please tell me it didn’t happen like that, oh sweetie, you – you should have said something.”  She felt sick that it had been going on in her own ship, that one of her crew was being raped, right under her nose and he had thought she had been allowing it.  “How could you even stay here, even after he was gone.  You were willing to work for a captain you thought was letting you get raped?”

            He looked away from her, feeling a blush move up his face, making his cheeks bright red.  “It kept me off planet, can we please just let it drop, please boss?”

            “No, you should have been safe here Harper.  And listen up good, I didn’t know it was happening, I wouldn’t have let it continue if I had known.”

            Harper looked at her in silence for several moments before nodding slightly, letting her know that he understood.  As soon as she saw it she pulled him into a hug again and he found himself relaxing into it, the knowledge that she hadn’t known about the rapes finally allowing him to hold nothing back.  Much to his embarrassment he couldn’t stop the tears that suddenly appeared and in no time he was sobbing against her shoulder and she eased one arm around his waist to hold him to her and the other petted his hair as she made soothing sounds.

            Once he had calmed down enough to pull back they stood in silence for a moment before Beka straightened her shoulders and gripped his shoulder.  She waited for him to look up and once she met his eyes she spoke, “It’s just the two of us now.  I got your back Harper, if you got mine.  Do you?”

            He licked his lips, glanced nervously around, mind racing at all the ways this could come back to bite him, all the ways this would end up badly for the Harper.  Trusting anyone was dangerous, he had learned that in the hardest way possible.  She was still staring at him though, and he felt a safety with her that he hadn’t felt since... since before he could remember.  So finally he nodded, and glanced away, “I do, boss.”

            She smiled and squeezed his shoulder before dropping her hand completely.  “Alright, let’s get to work on getting my baby here fixed up and getting the hell away from here.”

            Harper nodded even though she was already turning away, and the constant nervousness settled a little.  After standing there feeling a bit dumb for a moment he grabbed the vent above him and pulled himself up, getting back to his job.  He didn’t know if he could trust her, but really, he had nothing to lose. 


End file.
